'Cabaret' on tap at Thalian for three-weekend run

Tuesday

Dec 24, 2013 at 12:01 AM

There was a "Cabaret," and there was a master of ceremonies.

By John StatonJohn.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com

There was a "Cabaret," and there was a master of ceremonies. And there was a company called City Stage, in a town called Wilmington, and it was the end of the world. That's probably a bit hyperbolic, but the point is that back in 2002-2003, when City Stage first took on Kander and Ebb's musical theater classic "Cabaret," it was a different time. City Stage was a relatively new company and largely contained to its 200-seat theater on Front Street. Fast forward a decade and City Stage is a local institution, frequently venturing to other, larger theaters, including Thalian Hall, where the company will again stage "Cabaret" starting on Saturday for a three-weekend run directed and choreographed by Judy Greenhut. Celebrated for its raft of high-energy songs – "Willkommen," "Money" "Don't Tell Mama" – "Cabaret" is set in 1931 Berlin as the Nazis are rising to power, and it balances the decadence of the Kit Kat Klub, where much of the show takes place, with the encroaching darkness that threatens to overwhelm its characters. More than one member of City Stage's 2002-2003 cast will return, including Katherine Vernon as the nightclub singer Sally Bowles. Asked how she felt to be doing the role 11 years later, Vernon said, "Old," and laughed.Waxing a bit more serious, Vernon, who has done a wide range of roles in plays and musicals in her more than 15 years on the Wilmington stage, said Sally Bowles is "one of my favorite roles, so to get to do it again is amazing."This time around, "it's not necessarily a different take on the character as it is lighter," Vernon said. "I think I tended toward more tortured before." Playing opposite Vernon is another face that should be familiar to Wilmington theater-goers, even if he hasn't been around much of him in the last five years or so. Sam Robison will play Cliff Bradshaw, the American writer who has an intense, troubled affair with Sally. Robison's been in New York, but with a recent relocation to the Southeast, where he's looking for a city to call home, he's revisiting his long association with City Stage, for whom he played many roles during his time in Wilmington.Robison played Brad Majors in City Stage's production of "The Rocky Horror Show" at Thalian Hall in October, and he'll take on a favorite from his Wilmington days, the lead in the musical "Reefer Madness," in February back at City Stage, with Vernon also in the cast. "It sounds so cheesy, but as soon as I went back (to City Stage) for the first 'Rocky' rehearsal, it felt like home," said Robison, who spent many an hour under the City Stage roof as a member of the Changing Channels comedy troupe. Also appearing "Cabaret" are Jason Aycock as the Kit Kat Klub's androgynous Master of Ceremonies; Debra Gillingham as boardinghouse operator Fraulein Schneider; and Dick Bunting as the Jewish fruit shop owner whose romance with Frau Schneider provides a major "Cabaret" subplot.